Cached particles losing their shapes etc..

[Leo Quensel]

Hi all,

what am I doing wrong here: I cache particles with all kinds of
attributes out,
apply the cache to an empty pointcloud and use that in a referenced model.

Everything is working fine until I save my scene - the particles lose
everything but the
pointposition (basically just black dots in the viewport) until I reload
the reference.

Leo

[Alok Gandhi]

Shape attribute relies on the object ID which is unique to a scene and regenerated in a new scene.

-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2012.0.1831 / Virus Database: 2090/4557 - Release Date: 10/17/11
Internal Virus Database is out of date.

[Leo Quensel]

I thought something like that and forced the shape by applying another ICEtree on top of the cache.
This works, but my rotation is also lost, it only works when I manually reload the cache.
And the viewport only displays black dots even when I have the other ICEtree setting the shape again.
In rendering it looks fine except for the rotation.

[Alok Gandhi]

I remember resolving that issue by putting all of the required mesh for instances inside of the model even before caching. I am not sure of what I exactly I did, but something like that and it worked.

I will post again the exact workflow once I dig up those scene files (in case you already haven't solved the issue).

[Peter Agg]

It sounds like it could be an issue with certain attributes not being cached properly - double checking the attribute list you're exporting would be the first thing. If that looks ok then maybe try forcing the attribute to cache (Andy Nicholas can give a better explanation that I can! http://www.andynicholas.com/?p=360). The fact that rotations aren't being cached sounds odd though - are you using the Cache Manager or Cache on File node?

Still, here's my current workflow for getting around the issue of lost shapes anyway:

1) Make a separate model of all your instances: give each one the same custom parameter with a unique ID number. Make sure there's a group with all the instances in there (e.g. a group called Instances).

2) When you choose your instance shape, save the ID parameter value on the point (eg. self.InstanceID or somesuch)

3) Make sure you cache that InstanceID attribute

4) In your render scene: import your instances model and load the cache onto a pointcloud

5) in your pointcloud, search the Instances group for the item with the same InstanceID as the one you saved (using Find In Array, for example). 

6) Use the Index of that item in a 'Instance Shape' node

[Leo Quensel]

Thanks for that link - forcing the attribute to load like Andy does seem to work. The rotation was cached and there, but was lost once
I saved the scene.

Strangely enough the shapes still don't show up in the viewport,
even though they are set with an ICEtree above the MixerOp.
When rendering they show up correctly, so for now that will work I think.

Thanks.

Leo

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 22:34:43 +0000
> Von: Peter Agg <pete...@googlemail.com>
> An: soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
> Betreff: Re: Cached particles losing their shapes etc..

> > On 2/7/2012 5:01 PM, Leo Quensel wrote:
> >
> > I thought something like that and forced the shape by applying another
> > ICEtree on top of the cache.
> > This works, but my rotation is also lost, it only works when I manually
> > reload the cache.
> > And the viewport only displays black dots even when I have the other
> > ICEtree setting the shape again.
> > In rendering it looks fine except for the rotation.
> >
> > Am 07.02.2012 22:55, schrieb Alok Gandhi:
> >
> > Shape attribute relies on the object ID which is unique to a scene and
> > regenerated in a new scene.
> >
> >

> > On 2/7/2012 4:41 PM, Leo Quensel wrote:
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > what am I doing wrong here: I cache particles with all kinds of
> attributes
> > out,
> > apply the cache to an empty pointcloud and use that in a referenced
> model.
> >
> > Everything is working fine until I save my scene - the particles lose
> > everything but the
> > pointposition (basically just black dots in the viewport) until I reload
> > the reference.
> >
> > Leo
> >
> >
> > -----
> > No virus found in this message.
> > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> > Version: 2012.0.1831 / Virus Database: 2090/4557 - Release Date:
> 10/17/11
> > Internal Virus Database is out of date.
> >
> >
> >

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[Leo Quensel]

Short little update:

It turns out the culprit was really the attributes not getting loaded.
I built myself a compound to force the loading of all necessary attributes
according to Andys description.
Thanks again!

Leo

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:26:49 +0100
> Von: "Leo Quensel" <le...@gmx.de>